"The best fuzzy rules, the best knowledge, deal with the turning points of the system. If a race-car driver teaches you how to drive, you don't need him to show you how to drive on the straightaway. It's how he handles the curves that matters."
- Bart Kosko

Compare to the use of hunting robe from Clifford Simak's remarkable 1961 novel Time is the Simplest Thing. I'd also mention the necap from Alan Dean Foster's 2010 novel The Human Blend and the tanglefoot field from Robert Heinlein's 1954 novel The Star Beast.